Joe Biden is “the best candidate Democrats have” and would win reelection, despite a “crazy Congress” and an opponent “crazier than Dewey.” That was former San Francisco mayor and California Assembly speaker Willie Brown back in March, before the Democrats dumped Joe “sharp as a tack” Biden for coup clucker Kamala Harris. She owes her start in politics to poontronage from Brown, who had other ladies on the line.
In 1995, Brown met Carolyn Carpeneti, a woman of no color who became his political fundraiser. Over a five-year period, non-profits and committees controlled by Brown paid Carpeneti $2.3 million, but there was more to it. The attractive blond became Brown’s main squeeze and the unmarried power couple had a daughter in 2001, when Brown was 67 and Carpeneti 38, about the same age gap as Harris.
Brown backed Harris for San Francisco district attorney, state attorney general and the US Senate, but with the presidency in view he dumped her again. “It’s time for Hillary Clinton to come out of retirement, lace up the gloves and get back in the ring with President Trump for what would be the biggest political rematch ever,” Brown told reporters in October, 2019. “Clinton is the only candidate short of Barack Obama who has the brains, the battle-tested brawn and the national presence to take out Trump.”
In March, Brown was backing Joe Biden as the Democrats best candidate and a surefire winner. In late July, Brown praised Kamala Harris as “outstanding” in all the jobs she’s had, adding, “I hope all those Democrats who’ve been pushing Biden to quit will now show up and ring doorbells with me.” As it happens, Brown’s promotional skills have always been diverse and inclusive.
As Daniel Flynn explains in Cult City: Jim Jones, Harvey Milk, and 10 Days that Shook San Francisco, Willie Brown was a supporter of Jim Jones, whom he compared to Einstein and Martin Luther King. Jones was a big hit with San Francisco Democrats, who gave Jones a seat on the city housing commission. Brown even wrote a letter to Fidel Castro, urging the Communist dictator to extend an official state visit to Jones, a “close personal friend and highly trusted brother in the struggle for liberation.” To be fair, Jones supporters included Harvey Milk, Walter Mondale, and Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.
Willie Brown brags that he also influenced the careers of Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein. One doubts that Brown ever got next to them in the style of Kamala Harris and Carolyn Carpeneti, but with the San Francisco Democrats pretty much anything goes.
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